


Ghost-hunting is not a bonding experience (and yet here we are).

by TottWriter



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: First years bonding, Friendship (just don't tell Tsukki), Gen, Humor, Shenanigans, probably the least spooky ghost story of all time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-02 07:22:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18806440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TottWriter/pseuds/TottWriter
Summary: “I’m telling you Kageyama—it’shaunted!” Hinata cried, sending his literature notes flying as he leant on the table in his excitement. Someone on the far side of the classroom called uselessly for quiet. “There’s some kind of hungry ghost on the mountaintop and it’s after me! It’s gonna eat my whole family if we don’t do something!”“I don’t think there are actually ghosts in real life, Hinata,” Yamaguchi remarked, setting his pencil down beside his exercise book. His forehead wrinkled a little as he added; “Probably.”When Hinata sees whathasto be a ghost lurking around near his garden at night, he can't let the matter rest. Nevermind that no one else believes him. Nevermind that they're meant to be astudygroup. Nevermind, even, that Tsukishima isn't actually part of the study group at all. The only solution is for the four of them to team up and investigate, and sort the ghost problem once and for all....It goes about as well as you might expect.





	Ghost-hunting is not a bonding experience (and yet here we are).

**Author's Note:**

> This story was originally written for the Karasuno First Years Zine (and then I forgot to post it) so I'm super excited to share it at last! I had a lot of fun writing these idiots.

“I’m telling you Kageyama—it’s _haunted!_ ” Hinata cried, sending his literature notes flying as he leant on the table in his excitement. Someone on the far side of the classroom called uselessly for quiet. “There’s some kind of hungry ghost on the mountaintop and it’s after me! It’s gonna eat my whole family if we don’t do something!”

“I don’t think there are actually ghosts in real life, Hinata,” Yamaguchi remarked, setting his pencil down beside his exercise book. His forehead wrinkled a little as he added; “Probably.”

Tsukishima—who had developed a habit of ‘coincidentally’ studying near the trio—snorted into his hand.

“You realise there are such things as _animals_ , right?” he drawled. “You’re probably just seeing a rodent or something. Look, even the king agrees with me on this one.”

Kageyama scowled, frozen in the act of subconsciously nodding along with Tsukishima’s words.

“You aren’t studying with us, Tsukishima,” he said, glancing across at the other table to glare at him.

“Because I already know everything Yamaguchi is trying to help you two idiots learn,” Tsukishima replied easily, shrugging. “But I’m hardly deaf.”

“Well nobody asked _you_ , Stingyshima,” Hinata snapped. “If you won’t help us, you don’t get to be part of our conversations.”

Tsukishima arched a brow. “Such a tragic loss,” he remarked, as Yamaguchi tried to stifle a giggle.

 

* * *

 

“Look, I got a _picture!_ ” Hinata crowed after morning practice next day. “It’s proof! Now you _have_ to believe me!”

The phone was thrust in front of Kageyama’s face so fast that he lurched backward, stumbling into Yamaguchi with a curse.

“I can’t see it if you show me that fast!” he snapped, scowling at the screen. He snatched it out of Hinata’s hand and stared blankly at it a moment. “What am I looking at.”

“ _There!_ ” Hinata cried, tugging the phone down so that he could see where to point. “Behind the tree!”

“Well how am I supposed to see it if it’s behind the tree?” Kageyama asked.

“Oh, this is too good,” Tsukishima drawled. “Will you be offering tours next, Hinata? ‘Here’s the tree the ghost hides behind _so no one can see it_.’ ‘There’s the bowl of seeds left out overnight, which was _mysteriously_ empty in the morning!’” He pointed in different directions as he spoke, layering his voice with an even thicker dose of sarcasm than normal.

“Shut up, Stingyshima!” Hinata snapped, grabbing his phone back and waving it in Tsukishima’s face. “There really is a ghost!”

Yamaguchi leant over to peer at the screen as Tsukishima screwed up his face with distaste.

“Um, Hinata…” he said, but got no further:

“Hinata this isn’t even in _focus_ ,” Tsukishima said flatly. “You can’t see anything: it’s just a blur. Did no one tell you that cameras have to be kept _still_ to work? Though I suppose that’s probably another skill you don’t possess.”

They could all see the battle playing out across Hinata’s transparent features. Disappointment warring with frustration fighting with the ever-present desire to prove people—particularly Kageyama and Tsukishima—wrong.

“Well… Well you’ll just have to all come to my house and see it for yourselves then!” he said at last, folding his arms. “There, it’s all settled.”

Tsukishima snorted, “I have better things to do with my time—”

“I dunno, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi said, shrugging. “It sounds like it _could_ be fun. And if there really is nothing, that would settle it once and for all, right?”

“It’ll be great!” Hinata cried. “Though we’ll probably have to do it late at night so Natsu doesn’t try to tag along. But that’s okay because my mother won’t let any of us go wandering around until after dinner anyway because she knows how important—”

“Hinata you dumbass!” Kageyama snapped, grabbing him by the shoulder. “No one except Yamaguchi wants to go hunt ghosts that don’t exist with you! You live further away than anyone else! I’m not trekking over a mountain for a waste of time. We should be focusing on volleyball!”

 

* * *

 

“Remind me again why I agreed to this,” Tsukishima muttered as his brother’s car pulled up outside a small, traditionally built house in the countryside. The only indication of it being Hinata’s was the sight of his bike propped up against one wall.

“Oh, cheer up, Kei,” Akiteru said, grinning. “Just be glad I was visiting and able to give you a lift.”

“If you hadn’t been visiting, we would have had the perfect excuse not to come all this way for something so pointless.” Tsukishima glared at him then glanced at the rear driver-side seat, where Kageyama was looking doubtfully at the Hinata residence.

There was a short, somewhat awkward silence before Yamaguchi cleared his throat from the other rear passenger seat. “Thank you for giving us all a lift, Akiteru-san,” he said brightly. “We really do appreciate it you know.”

“Yes. Thank you!” Kageyama barked, after a somewhat unexpected nudge in the side from Yamaguchi.

They turned expectantly to Tsukishima, who muttered his thanks as he clambered out of the car. Akiteru just grinned, and waved cheerfully at them before pulling away. The car hadn’t had time to pull out of sight when the door to the house slammed open and Hinata appeared, a small girl firmly attached to his shoulders.

“You’re early!” he cried, struggling with the girl. “No, get off, Natsu—come on in! We have to eat a big meal before we set out or we might not have enough energy!”

 

* * *

 

As Yamaguchi pointed out later, perhaps the excess of food forced upon them by Hinata’s mother contributed to what went wrong. Used to her son’s endless appetite, she’d provided enough to feed an army, and even Tsukishima had been forced out of politeness to eat a substantial amount more than he normally did.

Even after an hour or two’s wait for the sky to grow darker, Yamaguchi still felt uncomfortably full. Judging from the expressions on the others’ faces as they pulled on their jackets and checked their flashlights, the same could be said for all of them. It wasn’t particularly clear if Hinata was feeling the effects of overeating as well, but they made a slow party as they meandered out of the house and into the garden.

“So now what,” Tsukishima said flatly. “It’s looking remarkably ghost-free out here.”

“I’m telling you, they’re real!” Hinata snapped. “We just… oh.” He pulled up short, turning around just in time for Kageyama to crash into him.

“Watch where you’re going, dumbass!” he snapped, pushing Hinata away with a scowl. “You can’t just stop walking so suddenly like that! It’s too dark to see you properly.”

“It’s not _that_ dark!” Hinata snapped in reply. “And we’re all together and we have our flashlights on, so it’s too bright and loud for them! Any time I’ve seen them I’ve been out grabbing my volleyball or something, so I never bothered to bring one. We’re scaring them all off!”

“Let me get this straight,” Tsukishima said, drawing himself up to loom over them with his full height. “You dragged us all this way—”

“Technically Akiteru-san gave us a lift, so it wasn’t that bad,” Yamaguchi pointed out.

“Shut up Yamaguchi.”

“Sorry Tsukki!” came the familiar reply, somehow contriving to be more flippant even than usual.

“ _Anyway_ ,” Tsukishima went on, “You dragged us out here when we have so many better things to be doing, and now you want us to wander around in the _dark?_ ”

“We should probably split up, too,” Hinata said brightly.

They didn’t need to see Tsukishima’s face all that clearly to know that he was most likely plotting murder. It was evident from the way he stood, somehow radiating enough frustration that they could _feel_ it.

“It might not be such a bad idea,” Yamaguchi pointed out quickly. “We’ve all got a flashlight each, and we don’t have to go far—Hinata you said you always saw them near the house, right? It can’t take that long.”

“That’s stupid,” Kageyama said, pointing at Hinata. “He’ll just say he saw the ghost and then it vanished by the time we ran over!”

“Are you calling me a liar?” Hinata cried, outraged. He lunged at Kageyama, knocking both of their flashlights to the ground with a clatter that sent some woodland creature or other scurrying away.

“I _knew_ something like this would happen,” Tsukishima muttered. “Urgh, this is a complete waste of my time.”

 

* * *

 

Despite the misgivings, they split up. As Tsukishima pointed out, there was no other way to pacify Hinata, and the sooner Hinata was satisfied that they had ‘looked properly’, the sooner they could all just go home.

The house where the Hinata family lived was… remote. The moon ducked in and out from clouds, making the visibility little better than terrible, and to top it off, they were all feeling particularly over-fed still. Marching around the mountaintop’s patchy scrubland and scattered trees was little better than miserable. They could all hear it whenever Hinata stepped on a twig or fallen leaf and spooked himself—and they could see it too, for his flashlight would wave around wildly and they hadn’t split up that much.

Kageyama had stayed fairly close by, determined that if Hinata was going to see something, he would too, just to prove it wasn’t there at all. It made sense, really it did. So it was Kageyama who had front row seats when Hinata suddenly flinched, and leapt backward with a squawk, crying out: “Ghost! Ghost!” and pointing at a large shape which darted away from them into a thicker patch of pine trees.

“That’s a deer, you dumbass!” Kageyama cried, marching over and grabbing Hinata by the collar as Yamaguchi arrived on the scene, eyes wide. “I’ve seen deer before! I didn’t need to come all this way to see more of them!”

Hinata scrambled backward, yanking himself free of Kageyama’s grip and ducking down to snatch up his flashlight.

“Was not!” he retorted, but even by torchlight they could all see how red his cheeks were. “It was _too_ a ghost! You—you were just too far away to see it properly!”

“Well, ghost or deer, I think you two probably scared it off now,” Yamaguchi said. “How long are we going to stay out here? We oughtn’t be too late, really.”

“I’ll prove it’s a ghost!” Hinata exclaimed, drawing himself up and puffing out his chest. “I’m gonna go catch it!”

Before any of them had time to reply, he’d dashed off into the darkness. Kageyama and Yamaguchi looked at each other for half a second before breaking into a run after him.

“Come back here, dumbass!” Kageyama roared. “You’re not going to catch anything without me!”

“Guys, wait up!” Yamaguchi cried as he fell behind. “Don’t you think this is a bit danger—”

There was a crash and a yelp, followed by a groan. Moments later Kageyama’s voice echoed into the darkness:

“Hinata you dumbass! How are you supposed to play if you twisted your ankle!”

Yamaguchi arrived in time to hear Hinata mumble that he felt sick, and averted his flashlight just in time to spare himself the sight of that. There were _some_ mercies to being in the dark, at least.

“We should probably get back to your house,” he said, watching warily as Kageyama reached down and pulled Hinata unsteadily to his feet. “I don’t think we’re going to find anything out here. Can you walk?”

Hinata nodded, although he winced a little as he put his weight on his left leg. “It’s just twisted. It’ll be fine.”

“Don’t risk it,” Kageyama said flatly. “You can’t mess about with injuries if you want to stay competitive.” There was a short silence, and then he huffed, muttering a curse under his breath. “Get on my back. I’ll carry you—so long as no one ever tells anyone about this.”

“What happens on a mountaintop stays on a mountaintop?” Yamaguchi offered brightly. “Still, where’s Tsukki?”

“Don’t care,” Kageyama retorted. “If he can’t see this he won’t tell anyone.”

“He probably heard us all and went back to my house,” Hinata added, pouting. “He never even came when I said I saw the ghost, so he doesn’t have to know I tripped, right?”

 

* * *

 

Tsukishima _had_ headed back to the house after hearing the commotion. Kageyama’s furious retort had convinced him as much as he needed, and there was little point wasting more energy hunting the idiot pair down.

He hadn’t strayed far, in any case. The lights of the house were visible through the darkness, and guided him as he picked his way between bushes. Really, the whole thing was— He flinched as something moved in the darkness.

Reflexes took over and the flashlight swept the patchy ground, landing on a spot near the roadside. For the briefest moment Tsukishima thought he saw a figure, crouched low by a fern. But no. It was just a trick of the light—a fact more or less proved when a hare leapt from the bush and dashed away.

He exhaled unsteadily. It was just his imagination, after all, probably bolstered by overeating. He was being stupid.

All the same, he couldn’t quite muster the energy to tease when he saw Kageyama carrying Hinata back to the house, the latter reluctantly agreeing with Yamaguchi that yes, it probably _had_ been an animal he’d seen all along.

 

* * *

 

The following day, Tsukishima drew his chair up to the table during the lunchtime study group, to the accompaniment of three open-mouthed stares.

“You two are so idiotic you need more than one person’s help,” he said flatly, not meeting anyone’s eyes. “This doesn’t make us friends.”

“And it has nothing to do with last night, either,” he added, despite knowing that denial only ever proved a point.

There was no more talk of ghosts, but after that, the study group had grown by one.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: being English, when I originally wrote this story I used the (here) commonplace word for a portable electric light "torch" during their adventures in the woods. It was pointed out to me that to American readers this wordchoice would cause considerable alarm, so I changed it. I'm still kinda sad about that, and was actually sorely tempted to change it back when posting it (the word 'flashlight' just looks weeeeird to me; literally no one uses it here), but for the sake of not causing panic when they drop the things, I elected to keep the change in place. 
> 
> Rest assured, no open flames were carelessly carried through the woods in the making of this hapless misadventure.


End file.
